Somali Money Transfer Problem a Federal Issue, Says MN DFL

Somali Minnesotans are stuck in limbo because the U.S. Government has pressured banks not to let them wire money home to their families in the war-torn East African nation — ostensibly out of fears that money could fall into the hands of terrorists. Many of those Somali families depend on the remittances for survival.

“At the end of the day, I think this is a federal issue,” said Thissen. “We actually can’t change the law that would change that. We can just encourage our federal representatives to move in that direction … and that we strike the right balance between the humanitarian interest of actually getting money back to families while not getting that money into the hands of terrorists, and I think striking that is Secretary of State Clinton’s ultimate decision.”

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In addition to shooting videos for The UpTake, Jacob Wheeler is a contributing editor at the progressive political magazine In These Times, publishes the Glen Arbor Sun in his native Michigan, and authored "Between Light and Shadow," a recent book about the Guatemalan adoption industry. Wheeler's stories have appeared in such magazines as the Utne Reader, Earth Island Journal, Rotarian and Teaching Tolerance magazine, and newspapers including the San Francisco Chronicle and Christian Science Monitor. He speaks fluent Spanish, German and Danish.

The only thing clear from the results of Wisconsin's presidential recount so far is there has not been changes vote totals large enough that could change the outcome. We have the latest spreadsheet, explanations of changes and analysis of what it means.

Listen to Mohamed Farah who is co-founder and Executive Director of Ka-Joog, which enriches the lives of Somali-American youth in Minnesota through mentoring and guidance on education and employment. This month he joined other Minnesota leaders at the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism to talk about ways to prevent youth from being recruited by international extremist organizations.

This year's Pride parade had something extra to celebrate — a U.S. Supreme Court ruling making marriage equality the law in all 50 states. The parade attracted the usual colorful assortment of marchers and floats as well as many politicians.

Chaos reigned again at the close of Minnesota's legislative session. A bonding bill that was made public in the last hour of the session failed when the House adjourned before the Senate could send back an amended version of the bill. Time ran out before the Senate could rescind the amendment.

Wells Fargo Bank isn't backing the Minnesota Somali community's fight to send money back to their starving families, so the Somalis are pulling their money out of Wells Fargo. About 100 people, Somali Americans with their supporters from labor unions, and from citizen activist groups staged a noisy rally in front of the Wells Fargo branch at 3030 Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis on Friday January 13, 2012, to draw attention to the serious humanitarian crisis in Somalia and to plead with Wells Fargo to take the leadership to resolve the issue.

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